Oh I see it was the Kovalchuk trade that happened to involve Salmela..

I didn't know that Atlanta got to choose between Cormier and Henrique.. Makes that trade even more of a win for the Devils

I had heard after the deal that Cormier had to be in it for the deal to take place. It was always Bergfors, Oduya and a 1st, and a Devils prospect. The Devils wanted to give them Palmieri, but the Thrashers were adamant that it included Cormier. I don't know, but it is quite possible the Devils offered Henrique instead of Cormier. Only a few months later did Henrique's stock rise with his MVP performance playoff performance (20 goals in 19 OHL playoff games) before leading his team to a Memorial Cup victory.

Edited by devilsrule33, 06 August 2012 - 07:07 PM.

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"The Stanley Cup has fallen from the Stars. The new millennium has its first Stanley Cup Champion, and it's the New Jersey Devils." Mike Miller calling the Devils winning the Stanley Cup.

"It goes to the captain and then there are handoffs during a skate around the ice" Mike Emrick as Scott Stevens is being presented the Stanley Cup.

This seems like a good time killer at the end of the work day so why not. Here I go: (Edit: I also added fight and food since I missed it)

Player: Hard to choose as I feel there are a bunch and the the team philosophy was that no player was above the team. While Stevens, Elias, MacLean, Nieds and Daneyko are pretty worthy, I'd have to go with Marty.

Season: 2000-01. While the playoffs ended with disappointment, I still believe to this day this is the best team the Devils have ever iced in their history from top to bottom.

Game: 1995 Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Seeing Peluso crying is forever burned in my brain. My second choice would be game 6 in the 2000 playoff series against the Leafs when the Leafs only managed 6 shots. (Funny personal story with that: I was only 16 at the time of the game and my Dad couldn't make it to game with me so my brother, who is a huge Rags fan, reluctantly agreed to go with me. After the game ended the whole ride home my brother was cursing up a storm and saying "The Devils will win the fvcking cup this year! Just you see!" He never went to another Devils game again with me until 2003 when he won tickets at his company to go to a playoff game against Tampa Bay in the 2nd round with seats 6 rows from the ice. Well after the game again he was cursing up another storm saying the Devils "Will fvcking win another cup!" Now he refuses to go to any Devils playoff games with me at all, even if they play the Rags. haha)

Goal: Arnotts Cup winning goal in 2000. Followed by MacLean's goal against Chicago in 88, Elias's goal in 2000 ECF, Niedermayers goal in game 2 of the 1995 finals and Friesen's GWG in 2003 ECF game 7.

Trade: Ilya Kovalchuk. Honorable mention is Tom Kurvers for the pick that would be Niedermayer and the 1999 trade to bring Lemiuex back for another run. I would include the Shanahan for Stevens but that wasn't a trade.

Unsung Hero: Brylin. Not too many players earn 3 stanley cups and still go as unnoticed as him. Loved his work ethic and I know I was for a while guilty of taking him for granted for many years. Still miss him.

Franchise Villian: Messier. (Dis)Honrable mentions are Avery, Gretzky, and good portions of national media.

Coach: Lemaire. Things turned around when he was hired and was the perfect hiring at the perfect time for the right team. Pat Burns is a close second.

Fight: Kamensky vs Nieds is always funny. There was once also a game at CAA somewhere between 96-99 against the Rags at CAA I believe where everyone on the ice got into it within a minute or 2 of the game started. It ended up where all 5 players on the ice were put into the box so each team had to put out 3 others from the bench to play 2 full minutes of 3 on 3.

Broadcaster: Doc. Mike Miller for radio.

Arena Behavior: The Baumann D-E-V-I-L-S chant. He is not much at the arena anymore but I did see him a few times at the arena this past season near the sec 21 area and it was a treat to see and hear him again. Takes me back to the CAA days. While the RnR Part 2 is still great, I just not liking the "You Suck" part anymore. At this point I cringe now every time I hear it

Food: Peanuts. Used to always order it during the 2nd period at CAA. We also used to sneak in our own and usually the ushers couldn't care less back in those days when they didn't pat you down either.

Arena: Well CAA has the memories but the Rock is far superior in every way. I do not miss the 1 concourse hearding of the CAA, but I do kinda miss the sh!tty cattlewalk lol.

Were those mugs shapes or mad to look like Campbell's soup cans? I just don't remember those. Overall the quality of the SGA have increased quite a bit over the years as evidenced mostly by the caps they give out.

Also the food at CAA was generally terrible. However I'm finding myself thinking the food at the rock has declined so much since its opening that outside the tastes of Newark stand and the one at the goal bar, the food now is as bad as it was at CAA

Were those mugs shapes or mad to look like Campbell's soup cans? I just don't remember those.

Heh, no one remembers those. They are from roughly 20 years ago, and are just regular plastic mugs with a Devils' logo and a Campbell's Ad on them. For whatever reason my family kept them and still uses them

Heh, no one remembers those. They are from roughly 20 years ago, and are just regular plastic mugs with a Devils' logo and a Campbell's Ad on them. For whatever reason my family kept them and still uses them

Haha nice. I still have somewhere one of the hat giveaways from either the early or mid 90s. It is a white painters cap with carvel on it. God they were awful and a lot of times the sponsor logo was as big if not bigger than the devils logo.

Trade: 1990 NHL draft. Move from 11 to 20, + their second for two better seconds from Calgary. Did they intend to draft Brodeur or was this just a value trade where he fell into their laps? If they were strong on the guy you'd think they'd just draft him at 11 and be done with it.

Player: Marty. NHL's All Time Winningest goaltender, all time shutout leader, 3 Cups, tons of awards and medals that I won't bother listing. He IS the franchise. Sucks he couldn't get the elusive Conn Smythe this June. Runner Up: Scotty. Fearless leader. Gutsy warrior. Nothing more to say about that man who will forever live in Devils lore.

Season: 1994-1995. Hard to say otherwise. Bounce back from a deflating end to the 94 campaign, and raise our first Lord Stanley. Runner Up: 1999-2000. Powerhouse team, proved we were for real. Won the Cup, and followed it up with another appearance in the Cup Finals the very next year...only to lose to the Avs and the Ray Bourque MISSION 16W lovefest.

Goal: Game 6 2000 Stanley Cup Finals. Arnott forever immortalized as a franchise hero. Stanley #2 for the Devs. Runner Up: TIE between Elias' goal late in Game 7 of the 2000 ECF vs Flyers and Friesen's goal late in Game 7 of the 2003 ECF vs the Sens. Both were on the road, and absolutely CLUTCH. Both men sent us to a Cup Final, which we won. Huge, huge goals in the history of the franchise. Honorable Mention: Game 6 2012 ECF Adam Henrique sends the Rangers packing, and sends the Devils to the CUP FINALS! Will never forget that one either....

Trade: Tough call, may have to go with the Arnott to Dallas deal which brought us Lags and Nieuwy. Without Jamie we most likely do not win the 2003 Cup. He was a BEAST that postseason. Runner Up: The Friesen to NJ deal for Sykora, IIRC. Jeff was instrumental during the 2003 run as well.

Unsung Hero: Director of Scouting, DAVID CONTE. Look at what he has done over the last 20+ years. Brodeur and Nieds alone could make him the unsung hero. Not to mention all of his other picks. Hate to say the name, but Parise was a steal where we took him. Henrique is looking to shape up into Conte's latest GRAND SLAM selection. Runner Up: Sarge. One of only 5 guys on all 3 Cup winning teams. Played with heart and never put up flashy numbers. Just an excellent guy to have on your squad.

Franchise Villain: I will have to give a tie to Mark Messier and Stephane Matteau. The ghosts of 94 have finally been exorcised this May, but that was painful to live with for nearly 2 decades. Messier always seemed to bring his A game against us, but the guarantee nonsense for Game 6 combined with the Matteau goal in Game 7 makes me want to cry. Thank you ADAM HENRIQUE. THANK YOU!

Coach: JACQUES. Is there a close second? Honorable mention to the late Pat Burns for the incredible 03 run.

Fight: I'll just go with any one of Mike Peluso's lengthy bouts. He had so many, and is my favorite enforcer of my Devils fan career. Krys Oliwa is the second.

Broadcaster: Doc. Obviously

Arena Behavior: Rock and Roll Part 2 after a goal. The "you suck" thing is moronic, and I hope it eventually stops. (I won't hold my breath)

Food: The old Brendan Byrne/CAA tailgate. Nothing like playoff time in May, rolling up to the parking lot and seeing the grills out in full force. The single most missed thing for me from that place. (I also miss getting out of the arena immediately. Who the hell designed the clusterfvck that is Prudential Center in terms of exiting? The architect should be shot)

Arena: Brendan Byrne/CAA. Tough to argue with 3 Championships during our tenure there, including 2 Lord Stanley's hoisted on that ice surface in the SWAMP!

Swag: I guess I'll go with the Cup Champions and retirement night mini banners. Pretty cool to hang them all up and make it look like the rafters of the arena. Honorable mention: Bobbleheads. The old school Brodeur, Stevens, Dano and NJ Devil giveaways from the CAA days were awesome. The Prudential Center era set of Brodeur, Elias, Parise and Lags was decent as well.

Food: The old Brendan Byrne/CAA tailgate. Nothing like playoff time in May, rolling up to the parking lot and seeing the grills out in full force. The single most missed thing for me from that place. (I also miss getting out of the arena immediately. Who the hell designed the clusterfvck that is Prudential Center in terms of exiting? The architect should be shot)

I have to agree in most part with this. Exiting the Prudential Center can be a nightmare on some games. I almost never exit out of the PNC tower anymore because people just become retarded when it comes to being able to go on escalators or walk down the stairs.

What I do now is if I am sitting in the lower bowl I exit out the old Verizon tower down the stairs. If I am exiting from the upper or middle bowl I use the stairwell near the PNC tower that has a street exit at the very bottom. The only problem with this is if there is a SGA that night, you won't get any using this exit.

I have to agree in most part with this. Exiting the Prudential Center can be a nightmare on some games. I almost never exit out of the PNC tower anymore because people just become retarded when it comes to being able to go on escalators or walk down the stairs.

What I do now is if I am sitting in the lower bowl I exit out the old Verizon tower down the stairs. If I am exiting from the upper or middle bowl I use the stairwell near the PNC tower that has a street exit at the very bottom. The only problem with this is if there is a SGA that night, you won't get any using this exit.

I use the exit that goes to the street that has Uber Burger and Brick City. It has 2 escalators, and it's right across from the parking lot I use. They give out the SGA's there...

I use the exit that goes to the street that has Uber Burger and Brick City. It has 2 escalators, and it's right across from the parking lot I use. They give out the SGA's there...

I use that too once in a while, but usually that is pretty far from my seats and it puts me out on the complete opposite side of the arena from where I want to go if I am going to the train station. Although again if it is a pretty big crowd I'll use that exit if I am near it.